I attended this event after taking a bit of a break from Repair Café/Fixit Clinic, which I enjoy and benefit from, in order to self-study two AP courses, which I dislike and… maybe benefit from. Anyhow, this event was at the Saratoga Library and there were a few high schoolers attending!

First up was an adjustable-height overbed table that the client had bought disassembled and couldn’t figure out how to assemble. The upper part of the table was supported at one end by a square tube that telescoped into a slightly larger tube extending out of the table’s legs. A toothed plate located at the bottom of the upper section’s tube was spring-loaded to grip the inside of the lower section tube, locking the two sections together. To extend or retract the table, a lever on the upper section was pressed, pushing a rod that angled the toothed plate, allowing both sections to come free. The table was also spring-loaded with a constant-force spring to tend upwards, making it easier to raise.

The toothed plate was mounted inside of a block that fitted into the bottom of the upper section tube, which also supported the coil of the constant-force spring. We initially forgot to push this block in all the way (the side opposite the teeth on the toothed plate should bear against the inside of the tube), leading to the toothed plate failing to lock properly. Also, we didn’t assemble the spring properly, simply hooking it to the block. Realizing our mistake after completely assembling the table, the customer said she didn’t mind and we decided to leave the table as-is.

I also fixed a pair of high-end headphones, whose wires were starting to disconnect from the jack. By angling the cord just right in relation to the jack, the customer was able to get it to work, and he’d used a twist-tie to keep the wires in this position. After some soldering and mild swearing, we decided to simply replace the headphone jack; fortunately, there was one on hand. Being my first time doing this sort of thing (and one of the few times I’ve worked on super fiddly little wires in general), I took a while, but after:

• cutting off the old jack,
• removing the old strain relief and installing the new one,
• using a wire stripper to expose about 10 mm of the tiny headphone wires,
• removing the enamel by applying gentle pressure to a sharp utility knife, holding it at right angles to the wires, and scraping the enamel (you don’t have to get it all off),
• soldering the wires (the heat aids in removing enamel),
• testing the dongle,
• crimping the cord to the jack with pliers,
• installing the strain relief, and
• testing again,

the fix was completed.

In addition to these two “interesting” fixes, I also did four computers with various common and marginally fixable problems, a remote control with “battery crystals” on it from old alkaline batteries whose owner didn’t know to clean them off, and a pair of eyeglasses with a loose hinge due to the knuckles (the sections with holes in them that extend out) being somewhat bent out of shape.

There was also a sewing machine whose presser foot would not go down, possibly due to a loose screw or missing spring. Since the machine looked complicated to take apart and fixers were told to spend no more than 30 minutes on a fix, I didn’t attempt disassembly.